Friko’s second album Something Worth Waiting For is highly ambitious; it had to be, following the brilliance of their debut. Branching between noise rock and slower ballads, the result is a set of songs that deal with the joys and perils of coming of age. The B-sides and demos in this expanded edition give us more from the superb album’s sessions.
Despite the album’s range, all the songs are connected by a feeling of comfort. The recordings are warm, even the harsh wall of noise on opener, Guess feels like the fuzz of nostalgia. B-Sides Necessary and Dirty Diamond evoke this same feeling. They sound deliberately rough, like you’re hearing them through the speakers of your local music venue. Raw and alive – basically the opposite of the overproduced shite Sombr makes. These two are also simply catchy, like so many of their songs. Friko have a talent for earworms.
My standout from SWWF is the ballad Seven Degrees. About the six degrees of separation, the theory that you are only six people away from anyone on earth. It is the sonic equivalent of a hug, a lovely song about human connection. Kapetan’s voice meanders up and down, paired with a winding guitar, leaving us assured and hopeful. It has the same emotional power as David Bowie screaming “you’re not alone!” The next of the B-Sides, ballad, Look At Ya Now, shares the song writing DNA of Seven Degrees and a demo of the song features here too.
SWWF is full of childhood imagery. Choo choo trains, Alice in Wonderland, hot air balloons. The cover even captures the dumb-faced joy of riding a bicycle as a kid. The expanded edition (expands) upon this by taking the original black and white photograph by scribbling the night sky with a big beautiful star in the middle. This is a touching addition.
The last B-Side is the unimaginatively named: Rock Song. It’s not especially interesting, overly repetitive and short. It ends with the chorus from the opener in a full-circle jittery freak out which is cool. Other than that, it is an outlier within an otherwise fantastic run of songs.
This expanded edition marks the end of chapter two of Friko’s artistic success. From their underappreciated debut to an emergence into the mainstream, they have even been labelled as this year’s Geese by Pitchfork’s Stuart Berman. Like Geese, Friko make rock exciting again; chapter three will be worth waiting for.
Something Worth Waiting For: Expanded Edition is out on September 11th 2026.
Article by Laurie Green. You can contact me via: lauriegreen2005@outlook.com.
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